I’ve told you all before that I have a strong love for reading correct? Well, I do. Back in elementary school when we used to order those scholastic books, one of the books I loved to read the most were the books that let you, the reader, choose which path the story was going to go. Meaning, once you got to the end of the chapter, the author would present to you 2 scenarios to pick from in order for the story to continue and then redirect you to the page in the book of the path you chose. Lately, when it comes to people discussing issues pertaining strictly to Black Lives Matter, I feel like I’m reading one those books from my childhood again because each time I learn about another member of Black society being killed by a member of the dominant society or by the police force, the moment others & myself begin to start asking legit questions surrounding the circumstances of these deaths, here comes some random ass person like Stephen A. Smith to introduce a different alternative for discussion. And that alternative is the “What about Black on Black crime?” deflection. As a matter of fact, over the last couple of years or so, I feel like I’ve been reading this book & I’m 10 chapters into so far & each time I get to the end of each chapter to begin to dig deeper for further analysis as to why these Black people were killed to begin with, here comes the author (aka the media) hitting me with the “What about Black on Black crime?” alternative. Out of all of the 10 chapters I’ve chose to focus on so far within the “Book of Dead Black People”, the “What about Black on Black crime?” alternative is the only alternative they present over & over & over. It goes a little something like this:
Chapter 1: Trayvon Martin
End of Chapter alternatives:
Chapter 2: Jordan Davis
End of Chapter Alternatives:
Chapter 3: Eric Garner
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 4: Michael Brown
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 5: Tamir Rice
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 6: John Crawford
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 7: Renisha McBride
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 8: Freddie Gray
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 9: Sandra Bland
End of Chapter Alternatives
Chapter 10: Black Lives Matter
End of Chapter Alternatives
These are just 10 chapters I’ve decided to include but please understand that this book has countless prequels that could be written & countless sequels that shall be in the making….yet all have the same alternate chapter ending.
What about Black on Black crime? Simple, when black people kill other black people, they go to jail. They don’t get paid vacations, Go Fund Me accounts setup, or the option of not being indicted. Plus, let’s stop pretending like Black on Black crime is some rampant out of control phenomena that is threatening the stability of America or just Black society in general. When the media starts tossing around the phrase “Black on Black crime”, that is really code for gang related knee grows shooting each other up in Chicago because that is all they ever highlight in an attempt to make a point. Yet totally neglecting to realize that gang violence, which should be the proper term for this particular segment of crime, has actually drastically declined since the 80s & 90s. But the moment you call it by its proper name, gang violence, now you have to include every other culture and their gang related issues and guess what….you’re going to have to include…wait for it……WHITE PEOPLE into this discussion as well. And we can’t start doing that can we? The moment we begin to expose how brutal & deadly a lot of white people can be & are, now we begin to fuck with the pristine image of white America that has been sold for far too long to the masses.
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